They kill the widow and the alien, and murder the fatherless.
Parallel Translations
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They kill the widow and the alien, and murder the fatherless.
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They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless.
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They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless.
Cross-references (6)
Passages linked to Psalms 94:6 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 10:2 to deprive the needy from justice, and to rob the poor among my people of their rights, that widows may be their plunder, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!
- Jeremiah 7:6 if you don’t oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don’t shed innocent blood in this place, and don’t walk after other gods to your own hurt;
- Ezekiel 22:7 In you have they treated father and mother with contempt. Among you they have oppressed the foreigner. In you they have wronged the fatherless and the widow.
- Malachi 3:5 I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says Yahweh of Armies.
- Isaiah 13:15-18 Everyone who is found will be thrust through. Everyone who is captured will fall by the sword. Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped. Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it. Their bows will dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eyes will not spare children.
- Jeremiah 22:3 Yahweh says: “Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong. Do no violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Don’t shed innocent blood in this place.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 94:6 They slay the widow and the stranger,…
Psa 94:6 They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless.
Ver. 6. They slay the widow and the stranger] Those sacred persons, thy proper clients; to such a height of hard heartedness are they grown, that they pity not them whom nature and courtesy would show compassion to.
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Nulla fides, pietasque viris qui castra sequuntur.
Let us bless ourselves out of the bloody fingers of barbarous and brutish men, skilful to destroy.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Whom common humanity obliged them to spare, and pity,…
Whom common humanity obliged them to spare, and pity, and relieve.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain They slay the widow and the stranger,.... Who are…
They slay the widow and the stranger,.... Who are so both in a literal and figurative sense, such who are weak and feeble, helpless and friendless; or who are deprived of their faithful pastors, who were as husbands and fathers to them, and who profess themselves pilgrims and strangers here; these the followers of the man of sin have inhumanly put to death, supposing they did God good service:
and murder the fatherless; having slain the parents in a cruel and barbarous manner, murder their infants; or figuratively such who are as orphans, destitute of their spiritual fathers, who were the instruments of begetting them in Christ, and of nourishing them with the words of faith and good doctrine; with the blood of these the whore of Rome has often made herself drunk, and therefore blood shall be given her to drink, Rev 17:5.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 6. They slay the widow] Nebuchadnezzar carried on…
Verse 6. They slay the widow] Nebuchadnezzar carried on his wars with great cruelty. He carried fire and sword every where; spared neither age, sex, nor condition. The widow, the orphan, and the stranger, persons in the most desolate condition of life, were not distinguished from others by his ruthless sword.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder…
They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless - To do this is everywhere represented as a special crime, and as especially offensive to God from the fact that these classes are naturally feeble and unprotected. See the notes at Isa 1:17; Psa 68:5; Psa 82:3.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 6. They slay the widow… stranger… fatherless—Proving that the…
6. They slay the widow… stranger… fatherless—Proving that the laws of war and of humanity are set aside. Non-combatants—innocent helpless ones—are murdered. It is a massacre, not a war. Murder without the pretence of trial or discrimination. The classes here distinguished were specially protected by the law of Moses, and by the promise of God. Exo_22:21-22; Psa_10:14; Psa_10:18; Psa_68:5; Isa_3:15
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 6. A proverbial expression for inhumanity and treachery. They…
6. A proverbial expression for inhumanity and treachery. They do not scruple to murder the most defenceless, and those whose lives, by the traditions of Semitic hospitality, should have been inviolable. “From the earliest times of Semitic life the lawlessness of the desert … has been tempered by the principle that the guest is inviolable.… To harm a guest, or to refuse him hospitality, is an offence against honour, which covers the perpetrator with indelible shame.” Robertson Smith, Rel. of Semites, p. 76. Cp. Exo_22:21-22; Psa_10:14; Mal_3:5.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (6) Stranger.—The mention of the stranger as one friendless…
(6) Stranger.—The mention of the stranger as one friendless and helpless (Exo_22:21), under the tyranny of the great, seems to imply that domestic, and not foreign oppression, is the grievance.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder…
They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. (comp. Isa_1:17-23 Isa_10:2 Eze_22:6-9 Mal_3:5; also Psa_10:8-10)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 6. They slay the widow and the stranger,…
Ver. 6. They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. They deal most arrogantly with those who are the most evident objects of compassion. The law of God especially commends these poor ones to the kindness of good men, and it is peculiar wickedness which singles them out to be the victims not only of fraud but of murder. Must not such inhuman conduct as this provoke the Lord? Shall the tears of widows, the groans of strangers, and the blood of orphans be poured forth in vain? As surely as there is a God in heaven, he will visit those who perpetrate such crimes; though he bear long with them, he will yet take vengeance, and that speedily.
Ver. 6. Widow; fatherless. An old Jewish writer (Philo Judaeus) has pointed out how aptly the titles of widow and orphan befitted the Hebrew nation, because it had no helper save God only, and was cut off from all other people by its peculiar rites and usages, whereas the Gentiles, by their mutual alliances and intercourse, had, as it were, a multitude of kindred to help them in any strait. J. M. Neale.
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Ver. 6-9.
1. Conspicuous sin.
2. Absurd supposition.
3. Overwhelming argument.
Psalms 94:7*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 94:6 widows . . . foreigners . . .…
94:6 widows . . . foreigners . . . orphans: The Lord’s law protects needy people (Deut 24:17; 27:19), but they remain vulnerable in society.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.